A border collie named Chaser participates in an experiment testing her ability to understand commands given before she can see any of the objects named in those directives. After hearing a four-word command, Chaser consistently turned around and carried the correct item from the head of the bed to the living room, where she placed it next the appropriate object. Credit: Courtesy of J. Pilley

In experiments directed by her owner, psychologist John Pilley of Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C., Chaser demonstrated her grasp of the basic elements of grammar by responding correctly to commands such as “to ball take Frisbee” and its reverse, “to Frisbee take ball.” The dog had previous, extensive training to recognize classes of words including nouns, verbs and prepositions.

“Chaser intuitively discovered how to comprehend sentences based on lots of background learning about different types of words,” Pilley says. He reports the results May 13 in Learning and Motivation.

Throughout the first three years of Chaser’s life, Pilley and a colleague trained the dog to recognize and fetch more than 1,000 objects by name. Using praise and play as reinforcements, the researchers also taught Chaser the meaning of different types of words, such as verbs and prepositions. As a result, Chaser learned that phrases such as “to Frisbee” meant that she should take whatever was in her mouth to the named object.

1. I live with borders and cattledogs

Their ability to key into speech is uncanny. My youngest, a BC/ACD mix is a sponge for commands. I've been training dogs by using "building block" commands for years. BC's run on praise, ACD's run on rewards; both pick up commands like nobody's business. The youngest showed a propensity for running and jumping (clearing a 4' fence flat-footed like a mountain goat -- to my great dismay!). It took about 5 minutes (and a handful of treats -- she IS half cattledog after all <lol&gt to redirect her to jump through a hulahoop. She got the concept of "around" and "through" right away.

It amazes me how creatures who are supposedly bereft of language centers grasp commands almost immediately, then can generalize the building blocks into more complex tasks. One thing I've noticed with my dogs is that the borders, once having grasped a command, will do it by the book, exactly the same way every time. A cattledog seems more likely to generalize and will vary execution of a task to fit a new situation.

Maybe that's just my kids. I never said any of us was normal <lol>

They love showing off how smart they are. We put on a show every time we go out together. They come home all confident and happy having been the center of attention

4. Border Collies are amazing dogs, but I should offer one word of warning

...to anyone considering getting one.

They aren't the best dogs around kids because they will often try to herd them, which includes nipping at their heels and can be quite frightening to small children. Both of my BCs are rescue dogs. One was rescued from a family who had a small child in which the dog wasn't compatible.

6. Shetland Sheep Dogs and some German Shepherds also do the nipping at the ankles

8. There are lots of different herding dogs

Border collies are just generally the best at it, and due to their widespread use for that purpose are still being bred for it. Not all border collies will do this with kids just like all herding dogs, but it's just more likely that they will.

5. Dogs and Cats understand more language than we humans give them credit for...

Our cats and dogs often respond to things we humans are saying to each other as well as to the specific or group of animals.

I think that our furry family members are limited limited in language only by the physical inability to form human words. Even so, my little Shih Tzu often responds to being given a treat with two little one syllable grunts that sound remarkably like "thank you." And no one taught him to speak.

9. They tried this on pit bulls but the researchers kept getting mauled

Nyuk nyuk nyuk.

Very cool article. Anyone who's owned dogs can corroborate these findings, at least anecdotally, to some degree or another. AFAIK it doesn't appear that dogs have shown the ability to convey language in the way that they're responding to it here, but it's interesting to see the depth of their skill at interacting with human speech.

14. My aussie,

with little to no formal training, responds to words, gestures, and tone of voice. She probably could have been taught to do some amazing things by someone with the time to do so.

Here, though, she just knows simple words and gestures, like "come," "sit," "down," "stay," "out," and "ah," which means no, or don't, or stop.

She responds just as well to a hand gesture for any of the above.

She's the only dog from a herding breed I've had. I've wondered if other "herding" dogs are as safe with cats and chickens, as loyal to home and to one person, as uninterested in chewing or digging or running off, as she is.